Part of the Global Plot to Expose Moonbats, conspiracy nuts, and anti-Semites, especially the Jewish anti-Semitic variety.
The leftwing Neo-Nazi web magazine Counterpunch has described Plaut thus: "One of the most pernicious writers is Steven Plaut, a man who could be thought of as Israel's Daniel Pipes."

Friday, November 30, 2007

When Leftwing McCarthyists scream "McCarthyism" at critics of the Seditious Left

3. Highly recommended:"Rachel Golem" recently completed an online parody of Amy Goodman and her anti-Israel far-leftist Democracy Now show. In the parody she interviews Chomsky, Finkelstein, Pol Pot and a few other people. I think it's quite funny and makes them all look like the hypocrites they are.

For years, some pro-Israel activists have been troubled by universityprofessors who demonstrated bias against Israel in the classroom. Butlast week was apparently a first: A George Washington Universityinstructor resigned after being accused of teaching a class that wasbiased in favor of Israel.

Hanna Diskin told the students in her "Arab-Israeli Conflict" class onTuesday of last week that she would not be teaching the class for theremainder of the semester - and would be leaving the D.C. university -because she was upset that students in the class had complained abouther teaching to the head of the political science department.

Diskin, visiting from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told the classthat the course she had been scheduled to teach next semester had beencanceled due to the complaints. But a student in the class, senior GregBerlin, said that political science department head Christopher Deeringsaid that next semester's course merely had been deemed "inactive," oron hold, pending a review of class evaluations from this term.

Calls to Deering and to Bernard Reich, who filled in for Diskin lastThursday, were not returned.

Diskin declined to comment via e-mail. A GWU spokesperson also had nocomment.

Berlin and a classmate, senior Elizabeth Kamens, both said that theproblem with Diskin's teaching was that she focused only on Israel in acourse that was supposed to deal with the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.

"We would never cover the other side," said Kamens, who is Jewish.

"It became more of an Israeli politics class," said Berlin, noting thatwhile understanding Zionism is important to studying the Arab-Israeliconflict, he wondered why they were they spending half of the semesterlearning about it.

Berlin said that he and a number of other students had expressed their"dissent" to Diskin in class about the way she was handling the course,but became frustrated when they would ask for an Arab perspective on anissue and Diskin would change the subject or talk over them. Forexample, after Diskin cited the number of Israelis who died in aparticular military conflict, Berlin said, students asked for the numberof fatalities on the Palestinian side. Diskin, according to Berlin,replied that only the Israeli figures were reliable, because only Israelwas a democracy.

"I'm Jewish myself, but I feel there's a line between objectivity andteaching with a bias," said Berlin, who said he was one of a number ofstudents who expressed their concerns to leaders of the politicalscience department.

The students said they were assigned readings from only two books: thescholarly A History of Israel by GWU professor emeritus Howard Sacharand the book Myths & Facts.

Kamens said she was "a little surprised" that the latter book wasselected for an upper-level political science course because of thebook's structure. It outlines common "myths" about the Arab-Israeliconflict and then provides evidence responding to those myths.

Myths & Facts originated as a American Israel Public Affairs Committeepublication decades ago and was updated by Mitchell Bard, executivedirector of the Chevy Chase-based American-Israeli CooperativeEnterprise, in recent years.

M.J. Rosenberg, who edited Myths & Facts when he worked at AIPAC in the1980s, was surprised to hear it was being used in a college class.

"It's not a textbook," said Rosenberg, now the policy director at theIsrael Policy Forum. "It's counter-propaganda" that is "not designed toshow both sides," but to provide all the facts that support thepro-Israel side.

Rosenberg said it was "hard to believe" the book would be used in anycollege class other than one studying propaganda.

Bard said his book is "all based on facts" and is the "most concisecollection" of information on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Coincidentally, Bard's organization, AICE, provided the funding to hireDiskin as a postdoc fellow at GWU. Bard said AICE - which will fund 26professors and six postdoc fellows at universities around the countrythis school year - has no input on whom the university hires or coursecontent, other than that the visiting instructors teach Israel studies.

He said professors who teach under AICE auspices are expected to beprofessional.

"If we're perceived as advocates, that would be counter to the ideawe're promoting," he said.

Bard said he was still attempting to get further information aboutDiskin's departure, but said he had never heard a complaint that auniversity instructor was too pro-Israel and that it would be "ironic"considering the number of complaints that have been made aboutanti-Israel professors.

Daniel Pipes, whose Middle East Forum set up a Web site titled CampusWatch to monitor the statements of Middle East Studies professors forbias, also said that an accusation of pro-Israel bias in the classroomwas "something I can't think of having happened before."

Pipes argued Diskin's departure signaled "another step" in enforcingattitudes throughout academia that are "anti-American and anti-America'sallies."

He also defended the use of Myths & Facts as a textbook. "So far as Iknow, it is a reliable source, perfectly reputable," he said.

Berlin said Diskin's decision to resign appeared to be her own, sincethe political science department did not know anything about it untilshe announced it to her students.